pa·se·o (pä-sā′ō): noun, origin Spanish


A leisurely evening stroll to enjoy the awakened city.



WHAT

Paseo is an event to celebrate and uplift the voices and accomplishments of our city’s diverse artists, community advocates and mutual aid groups. We hope to boldly awaken downtown by showcasing the power of community strength, creativity, and unity while not ignoring the very real change the streets of Downtown have seen in the last 18 months.  

The vision for this gathering is to celebrate and amplify the voices and accomplishments of our city’s diverse artists, community advocates, outdoor grassroots groups and mutual aid groups. Paseo’s programming will encompass most artistic mediums — music, spoken word, theater, dance, visual arts installations, and, hopefully wholly unexpected things. There will be food and market stalls/carts with a focus on BIPOC vendors. Woven into all will be tabling, info stations, and call-outs of various kinds — within the stalls and from the stages — to many of the grassroots groups that have worked so hard for our community.  


WHO

Paseo was co-curated by a 14-member steering committee that included Ambush, The Numberz; Darryl Ramsey, Outdoor Afro; Subashini Ganesan-Forbes, Portland Creative Laureate Emeritus; Chie Togo, Forest Park Conservancy; Andre Middleton, Friends of Noise; Sarah Clarke, Musicians in Solidarity; and Tai Carpenter, Don’t Shoot Portland;  Amanda Stubitz (Choctaw), community organizer; Becky Emmert, accessibility consultant; Sophie Hook, community engagement consultant; Bob Gandolfi, PPF board member; along with Paseo’s producers Michelle Comer and Carolina Soto Nascimento of Vida en Color.

The journey to Paseo began in 2021 when PPF assembled a series of “Think Tank” discussions on what a new downtown event might be with BIPOC leaders in the wake of Summer, 2020’s civil unrest after the murder of George Floyd. Out of those discussions, a steering committee emerged to create Paseo 2021, a 2-day August, but the Delta Variant’s surge forced pivot videos from the artists collectively called Paseo Mutual Aid Challenge!

CENTRAL QUESTIONS GUIDING PASEO

  • How can we best support grassroots groups without adding a burden?

  • How can this short-term event help to build lasting partnerships?

  • How can Paseo uplift Portlands’ communities that have been marginalized in this city while inviting the community at large to be part of the healing collectively?